July 26, 2006

Former Guided By Voices leader Robert Pollard will on Oct. 10 release his second Merge solo album of the year, “Normal Happiness.” As first reported here in November, the set features “16 two-minute pop songs,” according to Pollard, who crafted the material from ideas that went unused on his 2004 soundtrack to the Steven Soderbergh film “Bubble.”

As with January’s “From a Compound Eye,” the new album is collaboration with producer Todd Tobias. “I spent two-and-a-half days in the studio doing my vocals and guitar and he spent two weeks finishing it,” Pollard tells Billboard.com. “It has gotten to the point where it’s like, just do it, Todd, and I don’t care what you do. I trust you entirely. I don’t know how many projects I have done with him, maybe 10, but the success ratio is 100%.”

Source billboard.com.

A reel-to-reel tape containing a never-before-released Jimi Hendrix studio track, “Station Break,” will be auctioned Oct. 26 as part of the Ocean Tomo Fall 2006 Live Intellectual Property Auction in New York. The purchaser will also receive half ownership in the New York common law copyright and half the proceeds from any future licensing.

“Station Break” was recorded in 1966 at Allegro Sound Studios in New York during the same session that yielded such instrumentals as “No Such Animal,” “I’m a Fool for You” and “Kato’s Special.” The tape was located in 1994 by Jerry Simon, who produced the session. Other master recordings from the session were offered for sale on eBay in 2005.

Source billboard.com.